org type – Christian Web Trends Bloghttp://blog.ourchurch.com
A look at how trends in communication technology impact individuals and organizations.Fri, 09 Dec 2016 13:34:56 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.15 Easy Marketing Tricks You Can Use Without Losing Your Soulhttp://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/12/09/5-easy-marketing-tricks-without-losing-soul/
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/12/09/5-easy-marketing-tricks-without-losing-soul/#commentsFri, 09 Dec 2016 13:32:43 +0000http://blog.ourchurch.com/?p=51503The marketing process is pretty linear – you run your campaign, people see it, people like your product, and they buy it. However, things are not always as simple as they seem to be. Sometimes, you just can’t detect what’s ruining your perfectly designed advertising campaign. If this is your problem, it’s time to try something new. Fresh approaches to old problems can help you if you’ve got your back against the wall. Let’s take a look at some marketing tricks that professionals recommend.

1) Focus on helping people

When it comes to marketing, there are always two sides – one is you, the seller, and the other is your buyer. But, in order to break this seller-buyer relation, you need to change your point of view. If you focus on actually helping people, your business can bloom.

Your customers will find you reliable and honest, which is one of the most important things when it comes to business.

2) Listening

Since you don’t make your products for yourself, listening to your customers is essential. There are many ways for you to get their opinion. Investing in digital marketing might give your business the well-needed boost. This is also a great way to hear what your customers have to say. So, organize a comment section for your website and establish social media profiles for your business. People will share, comment, and you will get a clear picture of their demands and wishes.

3) Connect with others

The internet is a sea of content and it can be difficult to swim to the surface. Keep in mind that you can’t do it by yourself, no one can. That’s why connecting with other websites can be very productive for your business. Connect with prominent bloggers and notable social media pages. A single link from these people can give you hundreds of new visitors and potential customers. Link out to some important blogs or websites from your website. This way you suggest their service to your visitors, so you can expect them to return the favor.

4) Be careful with low prices

Many entrepreneurs lower their prices in order to attract the customers. Although this can be a good idea in some cases, it’s usually a road that leads to a blind alley. The fact is, if your price is too low, people will consider your product is not very good.

On the other hand, people will expect excellence if your prices are high. The best solution is to maintain reasonable prices. This way, you will be able to cover different groups and give each person what he or she needs. It takes time to establish this sale philosophy so be patient and make smart moves.

5) Offer something for free

Besides providing excellent content on your website and social media pages, it’s a great strategic move to give your customers something for free. We’re talking quality items that you could certainly sell but you choose to give them away instead. People always appreciate free things so this strategy can bring you plenty of new visitors and customers.

The message here is what’s important. Many websites offer a free membership or a PDF book regarding their business. If you do this, there is a good chance people will get more interested in what you have to offer.

The bottom line

Leading a great marketing campaign is essential if you want to be on the top. However, every successful entrepreneur knows that you need to save your soul and be honest with your customers. This is the only way to maintain a stable relationship with them. Each one of the tips given in this article will help your goal but you need to have a good strategy and to use them in the right moment. If you are short on cash but still decide to give something for free – the results might not be so good. Create a meaningful plan and execute it carefully. Good luck!

Which of these marketing tactics resonates with you? Why?

]]>http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/12/09/5-easy-marketing-tricks-without-losing-soul/feed/221 Quotes About Church Marketinghttp://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/25/21-quotes-about-church-marketing/
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/25/21-quotes-about-church-marketing/#commentsFri, 25 Nov 2016 12:48:53 +0000http://blog.ourchurch.com/?p=51392Throughout this month, we’ve been sharing with you pithy, insightful quotes about church marketing. Here’s a collection of all those tips.

1) Thinking that you don’t have to intentionally market your website to rank well in Google is like thinking that if you just walk in any random direction, you’ll eventually arrive at your destination. -Kurt Steinbrueck

Do you have a favorite church marketing quote or tip? Got another church marketing quote to share?

]]>http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/25/21-quotes-about-church-marketing/feed/3Church SEO: How to Repurpose Sermon Content for Better Search Rankingshttp://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/17/church-seo-repurpose-sermon-content/
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/17/church-seo-repurpose-sermon-content/#commentsThu, 17 Nov 2016 16:48:31 +0000http://blog.ourchurch.com/?p=51481Previously we discussed how most churches are creating valuable content every week – the weekly sermon – but not using it to help their church’s search engine rankings. Even if a church posts audio or video of their sermons online (a good thing), search engines can’t decipher audio or video, so it doesn’t help with search engine optimization or church SEO.

A church can very easily take steps to use their sermons to improve their search rankings by:

Posting to a sermon blog once a week, is a great step. But it’s still just one post, one piece of content each week. There are lots of other content that can be created from the weekly sermon that will help your church continue the conversation on the sermon topic, connect with other people, and improve search rankings.

10 Ways to Repurpose Sermon Content

1) Discussion starting question. Friday morning, post to your social media channels a discussion starting question that will get people thinking and talking about the topic of the weekend services. Create an image with the question, so you can post it to Instagram. Here’s an example…

2) Sermon video to YouTube. If you record video of the sermon, post it to YouTube. Even if you use another video service like Vimeo or host the video file on your own server, you’ll reach more people on YouTube.

3) Sermon blog/notes. We already covered this here, but I didn’t want to leave it off the list.

4) Quote image. Take a quote from the sermon and create an image with the quote in it. Share it on your social media platforms.

5) Scripture image. Take a scripture verse from the sermon and create an image with the quote in it. Share it on your social media platforms.

6) #Hashtag your sermons. Select a hashtag for your church. (Make sure you check it out first to make sure someone else isn’t already using it). Show it on the screen and encourage people to use the hashtag when sharing pics, quotes and thoughts during the service. That will make it easier for you to find and re-share other people’s posts.

7) Post discussion questions. On Monday morning, post one or more discussion questions from the Sunday service to continue the conversation online.

8) Ask for action steps. Hopefully during the sermon, your pastor challenges you to take action and live out the message in a specific way. During the week, you can post to your social media channels asking people to share how they did that, ask people to post pics when appropriate.

9) Send a weekly email. If your church sends out an weekly email/newsletter, any or all of these content items can be included in that email. That email can also be saved to page on your website and a link to it shared on your social media platforms.

10) Publish community content in a photo gallery on your website. If you’re successful in encouraging people to share their thoughts and pics with the church hashtag or people post stories or pics of their action steps during the week, take those pics and images of the comments and put them in a photo gallery.

*Bonus* Show community content Sunday on the big screen. Take the pics posted to the photo gallery and show them Sundays on the big screen before, during or after the service.

Note that from an SEO perspective, only the items that involve posting and sharing content on your website (3, 9 & 10) will help your church website’s search rankings directly. However, all of these things create engagement, build community and share the story of what God is doing in your church. As the engagement and community grows, there will be even more linking, sharing, better search rankings, and living out your mission online.

Discuss it!

Which of these sermon repurposing ideas is your church currently doing?

Which do you want to start doing?

What other ways can sermon content be repurposed?

]]>http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/17/church-seo-repurpose-sermon-content/feed/1Open Discussion on Church Marketing & Church Outreachhttp://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/16/church-marketing-outreach-discussion/
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/16/church-marketing-outreach-discussion/#respondWed, 16 Nov 2016 15:59:43 +0000http://blog.ourchurch.com/?p=51474What are your thoughts on the role & importance of church websites in church marketing / outreach?

This is one of the questions in the OCC web admin survey this month, aka Church Marketing Survey. Some of the responses so far include:

Very important

ambivalent

They are important today, but there is WAY too much emphasis today on trying to appeal to people through that which is “cool” or “hip.” We have become a market driven culture.

it lets people know what is going on in a church, therefore they know if they would like to be part of service or associated with people that worship that way.

As you can see, perspectives vary quite a bit.

Another question we’re asking is, “What are your thoughts on church SEO?” Some responses include:

ok

Very important

Don’t know enough about it

?????

Why are we talking about church marketing?

Two main reasons.

First, we want to help you think through where you are with your online church marketing, and what your next steps might be. Is your church effectively reaching people in your community? If not, do you understand how your website can help you do that? Do you understand the impact of SEO (search engine optimization) and how it affects whether people can find your church online? If not, what information do you need? What questions can we answer so you can

Second, we are your digital outreach partners. We want to know what we can do to help you better reach the people in your community. Maybe that’s better church website or church SEO services. Maybe it’s better training to help you better use the tools you already have. Maybe it’s helping you connect with other church communicators. Maybe its something we haven’t thought of.

When we preach the gospel, we are planting seeds that we hope will sprout in the future.

When we disciple new believers, we are investing in their spiritual growth.

When we hire a youth pastor, we are investing in teens who are the future of the church.

When we serve in ministry, we are investing our time in God’s kingdom.

We understand the concept of investing time, effort, people and money into something now because we believe it will result in something bigger and better in the future.

However, when I talk with people about church marketing and specifically church SEO (search engine optimization), often people tell me, “We want our church’s website to rank better in search engines so we can reach more people, but we can’t afford it.”

Consider the parable of the hidden treasure

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. -Matthew 13:44

Could the man in the parable afford the field? No, he sold all he had because he knew that the field was worth the investment. Anytime we say we can’t afford something, it reveals we view it as an expense rather than an investment.

There are people in your community who are searching for God and looking for a church. You are probably already investing time, effort and money in church outreach to try to connect with them.

What if your church website was on the first page of the search results when people search for “church in [your city]?” Would that help you reach more people in your community? What that be worth the investment?

We’ve seen time and again those churches that invest in church SEO, experience more visitors to their website, more visitors to weekend services, people coming to faith in Christ, and people connecting with their church community.

Church Budget Time?

If your church is developing its budget for 2017, now is the time to think about investing in your church website and church SEO.

Measuring the Return

One final thought on investing… Good investments produce a good return. You would never think of investing in your retirement and then never checking your account balance. When investing in church marketing, its just as important to check the results. That means asking new people how they found your church, and tracking how many people found your church through searches and your website. When you do that, you know exactly the impact your investment is making (and you can tell congregation and church leaders about it too

Marketing is an investment. Done well you will get more back then you put in. -Kurt Steinbrueck

Do you think of your church website and church SEO as an investment? Why or why not?

Are considering your website and SEO as a part of your church’s outreach budget for 2017?

]]>http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/09/church-marketing-hidden-treasure/feed/0Church Marketing – It’s Not What You Thinkhttp://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/02/church-marketing-not-what-you-think/
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/02/church-marketing-not-what-you-think/#commentsWed, 02 Nov 2016 17:53:48 +0000http://blog.ourchurch.com/?p=51397There are two predominant views about church marketing within churches today.

Church Marketing – The Consumerism Way

First, we have some churches that have infused modern business principles into the way they operate. They view church marketing as an essential part of reaching the people in their community. They investigate the needs and desires of the people in their community. Then they communicate through all kinds of media – TV, radio, Internet, direct mail – how God and their church can meet their needs and desires.

While it’s possible to take this approach to church marketing in a God-honoring way, and help people connect with God and the church, there is a danger. The central theme of Christianity is that because Christ died for us, we are going to lay down our lives and follow Him. We have to be careful about telling people, “Come to our church. All your desires will be met.” And then, “Great! Now that you’re here, it’s not about you. Give up what you desire and follow Jesus.”

The Anti-Church Marketing Way

Some churches see what the first group of churches are doing and think it’s too superficial. It’s style over substance. They want nothing to do with church marketing. They’re not going to try to sell or promote their church one bit. If someone is really seeking God and God wants them at their church, by golly, God will find a way to get them there.

While there is some truth to this – God does seek us out and draw us to Him – God also calls his followers to GO and make disciples, and not just wait for them to show up on our doorsteps.

The Third Way: Authentic, Engaging Church Marketing

There is an alternative to these ways of doing (or not doing) church marketing – a third way. Instead of promoting what’s in it for them, we can tell of what God is doing in us. Instead of pulling back from the world, we can live out our faith in the midst of and engaging with those who don’t yet know Christ in our communities. As my bro, Kurt Steinbrueck says…

Church marketing isn’t about marketing. It’s about using every tool available to bring people to Christ. -Kurt Steinbrueck

Technology gives us the opportunity to tell our stories and live out our faith in genuine, engaging ways including:

Authentic church websites that show people who we really are and what we’re really about. No hype. No stock images.

Church SEO that enables people to find our churches when they are searching.

Blogs and social media used to share the stories of what God is doing in our churches.

Let me wrap this up by saying this… how we approach church marketing and outreach is not an easy topic. It’s something we all need to wrestle with, individually, together and with our church leadership teams. The way God leads one church to do its marketing and outreach is going to be different from others. We want to wrestle with this topic with you this month, so we’re declaring November to be Church Marketing Month.

Do you have a comment or question about church marketing you want to discuss?

]]>http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/11/02/church-marketing-not-what-you-think/feed/121 Quotes About Church Website Designhttp://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/10/31/21-quotes-about-church-website-design/
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/10/31/21-quotes-about-church-website-design/#respondMon, 31 Oct 2016 12:56:26 +0000http://blog.ourchurch.com/?p=51245Throughout this month, we’ve been sharing with you pithy, insightful quotes about church website design. Here’s a collection of all those tips.

I want to share an idea with you that could dramatically improve your church website’s search rankings.

We’ve known for years that publishing original content is one of the best ways to improve search rankings. Each piece of content has the potential to rank well in search engines for specific keywords. Links to each piece of content and social shares of that content improves the search rankings not only of that specific piece of content but the entire site.

Fortunately, your church is probably already creating a lot of original content. Even the smallest church usually has a sermon as a part of its weekly gatherings.

This is probably not news to you. In fact, maybe you’re already posting audio of your sermons on the church website. If so, kudos to you! That’s great! However…

How sermons are posted to a church website can dramatically affect their search impact.

Consider the way most churches post sermons to their website…

Usually, the title of the sermon is displayed on a web page, and the title links to an audio file of the sermon. That’s great for human use, but guess what… search engines don’t have ears.

In this scenario, the only thing search engines see is the text title of the sermon. As a result, these sermons will have little impact on search rankings. Additionally, if all there is for each sermon is a link on an existing page to the audio file, there are no new pages being published.

There is a much better way to publish sermons from a church SEO perspective. To start…

Design your church website with a sermon blog.

Then each week, publish a new post for each sermon. The sermon posts could be as simple as a 3 sentence summary and a link to the audio. The important thing from an SEO perspective is that there is some text there for the search engines to read. If you’re ambitious, there are all sorts of other things that could be included in each post:

A summary of the sermon

A link to the audio of the sermon

Video of the sermon embedded in the post

Discussion questions

One or more next steps or calls to action

Quotes from the sermon

Scripture references used in the sermon

Any graphics or videos used to promote the sermon series

If your church website uses WordPress, blogging functionality is already built into it. You just have to create a “Sermons” page that lists your blog posts. If you’d like some help with your church website design or church SEO, we’d be happy to discuss it with you, no cost or obligation.

The important thing is that your website is designed with the functionality to help you live out your mission online.

Great web design without functionality is like a sports car with no engine. -Paul Cookson

I’m a firm believer that the hub of communications for every organization should be its website. Social media and other communication channels are like spokes to and from that hub. Therefore, church website design has a huge impact on how many people engage with your church in social media.

3 Church Website Design Tips to Turbo Charge Your Social Media

1) Social media icons/links.

Let’s start with the most obvious… if you want people to engage with your church in social media, design your church website theme to include social media icons that link to your social media profiles. By putting them in the theme, they will be in the same place on every page of your website.

2) Social media share buttons.

Another important social media feature to design into your website are social media share buttons. Designed right, these buttons should be at the top/and or bottom of every page and post of your website. For the Twitter button, it’s best if it includes the name of the page/post, its URL (preferably shortened) and your Twitter profile. For example:

This way when someone tweets a page or post, the people who see that tweet can click to get to your Twitter profile.

3) Embed social media content into your website.

This is more of a content thing than a website design thing, but one of the best ways to introduce people to your social media channels is by showing them some of the great content you’re sharing there. Every social network has an Embed button on every post, pic, pin and update that when clicked will give you the HTML code to embed that content into a page or post on your website.

For example, if you post a video from a missions trip to YouTube, write a blog post about the trip and embed the video in it:

If you post pics from an event to Facebook, write a blog post about it and embed the entire gallery:

If you’re writing an devotional, blog post, or “thoughts from the pastor” for your site, Tweet quote or scripture verse and then embed that tweet like this:

What is the most difficult question you have encountered about faith in Jesus?

When people read the pages and posts on your church website with social media embedded in them, if they have any interest at all in engaging with you on that social media platform, they’re going to click through see what else you’ve posted. If they like what they see, they’ll like/follow/subscribe.

Want to learn more from about designing your church website to turbo charge social media engagement with a community of passionate church communicators?

Which of these 3 tips are you already using? Which do you plan to implement?

Got any other church website design tips that could help increase a church’s social media engagement?

]]>http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/10/25/3-church-website-design-tips-turbo-charge-social-media-chsocm/feed/2How to Design Your Church Website for People and Search Engineshttp://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/10/20/church-website-design-people-search-engines/
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/10/20/church-website-design-people-search-engines/#commentsThu, 20 Oct 2016 14:34:32 +0000http://blog.ourchurch.com/?p=51326We have become an image-driven society.

This is a relatively recent development. For thousands of years human beings primarily communicated verbally. Then about 500 years ago with the invention of the printing press, human communication shifted from verbal to written. But, in the last 50 years with the development of TV and the Internet, human communication has rapidly shifted from primarily text to primarily images – pictures and video.

Websites have also changed in the last 10 years from primarily text to primarily pictures and video as Internet providers have increased bandwidth and smart phones have put a still camera and video camera in everyone’s pocket.

This is a good thing. As communication changes in our culture, it is imperative that we in our churches change the way we communicate. Today people communicate through Instagram pics, YouTube videos and emojis. Churches need to do the same.

One word of caution, though…

Search engines don’t speak the language of images.

Most people who are looking for a new church, use search engines to find and investigate churches in their area. Search engines don’t understand images or video. They need text to understand what a website is about. So, when you’re designing your church’s next website, make sure you include at least a paragraph or two of text on the homepage to help your church SEO, like this…